The deal is all but done but we still have no formal announcement that the ECB has exchanged its Greek bonds for new bonds that will be exempt from legal steps by Athens to force losses, as reported already.

The hold-up is, perhaps, over the issue of what to do about those Greek bonds held by eurozone national central banks in investment portfolios but not acquired under the ECB’s bond buying programme launched by Jean-Claude Trichet, then president, in May 2010. We don’t have any figures on how big these holdings are, or where exactly they are — although the biggest are thought to be held by the central banks of France, Cyprus and, of course, Greece. The Bundesbank has none. Read more

The ECB is worried hugely about the principle of it taking a loss, or foregoing profits. But there is also the threat to its own finances: the ECB, like many a central bank, does not have much in the way of a capital buffer.

How would the ECB’s finances look in the event of a Greek default? Well this article, published back in May by the FT’s Frankfurt bureau chief Ralph Atkins, goes some way to answering this question.

As Greece’s largest bond holder, with a portfolio worth perhaps €40bn, the European Central Bank is watching closely the tense and protracted negotiations over losses private investors would accept voluntarily as part of a second refinancing deal for the country. Mario Draghi, ECB president, will discuss progress when eurozone finance ministers gather tonight (Monday) in Brussels.

The ECB has two objectives: first, to secure a deal that has a reasonable chance of working and, second, to avoid bearing any burden itself. Neither will be easy. Read more

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Chris Giles has been the economics editor of the Financial Times since 2004. Based in London, he writes about international economic trends and the British economy. Before reporting economics for the Financial Times, he wrote editorials for the paper, reported for the BBC, worked as a regulator of the broadcasting industry and undertook research for the Institute for Fiscal Studies. RSS

Claire Jones is the FT's Eurozone economy correspondent, based in Frankfurt. Prior to this, she was an economics reporter in London. Before joining the Financial Times, she was the editor of the Central Banking journal. Claire studied philosophy and economics at the London School of Economics. RSS

Robin Harding is the FT's US economics editor, based in Washington. Prior to this, he was based in Tokyo, covering the Bank of Japan and Japan's technology sector, and in London as an economics leader writer. Robin studied economics at Cambridge and has a masters in economics from Hitotsubashi University, where he was a Monbusho scholar. Before joining the FT, Robin worked in asset management and banking. RSS

Sarah O’Connor is the FT’s economics correspondent in London. Before that, she was a Lex writer, covered the US economy from Washington and the Icelandic banking collapse from Reykjavik. Sarah studied Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge University and joined the FT in 2007. RSS

Ferdinando Giugliano is the FT's global economy news editor, based in London. Ferdinando holds a doctorate in economics from Oxford University, where he was also a lecturer, and has worked as a consultant for the Bank of Italy, the Economist Intelligence Unit and Oxera. He joined the FT in 2011 as a leader writer. RSS

Emily Cadman is an economics reporter at the FT, based in London. Prior to this, she worked as a data journalist and was head of interactive news at the Financial Times. She joined the FT in 2010, after working as a web editor at a variety of news organisations.
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Ralph Atkins, capital markets editor, has been writing for the Financial Times for more than 20 years following an economics degree from Cambridge. From 2004 to 2012, Ralph was Frankfurt bureau chief, watching the European Central Bank and eurozone economies. He has also worked in Bonn, Berlin, Jerusalem and Brussels. RSS

Ben McLannahan covers markets and economics for the FT from Tokyo, and before that he wrote Lex notes from London and Hong Kong. He studied English at Cambridge University and joined the FT in 2007, after stints at the Economist Group and Institutional Investor. RSS